LisaKudrow

Holding therapy sessions via Webcam has its own unique set of problems. You never know who could walk into your client's den or office and disrupt client-patient confidentiality. Fiona Wallace was in the midst of a session with her client, Robert Lachman, when they were rudely interrupted on 'Web Therapy' (Tuesdays, 11PM on Showtime).

The conversation was starting to get a bit intimate. "You can be my spokesperson without violating my trust," said Lachman. "I'm a very sick man." He didn't sound sick, in a medical sense. "I promise I won't violate you in any way that you don't want to be violated," Wallace replied.

She played Serena Duvall, an Internet psychic who wanted Fiona's (Lisa Kudrow) help regaining her abilities. To this end, she invited Fiona onto an episode of 'Tyra,' and that's where it all started to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Fiona was angry because thought she'd been invited onto the show as a member of the panel of web professionals, only to find that she was seated in the audience as a "plant" to show off what she referred to as Serena's "fake powers."

An irate Serena asked her, "Did you really think that you would be up there with the other professionals? The sex worker, the webfomercial spokesperson? Really? Those are professional jobs. What do you do? Give advice? I see the future!"

Sometimes you get the chance to listen in on some very important conversations about very important things on late night talk shows. More often you'll hear celebrities shilling their latest project. But it's only on 'The Late Late Show' (Weeknights, 12:37AM ET on CBS) that you could watch Lisa Kudrow and Craig Ferguson talk about salad.

It's not just any salad they're talking about, though. According to Ferguson, he had lunch with Courteney Cox, and she recommended a salad to him "because it makes you poop."

"There's a salad that makes you poop?" Kudrow asked in surprised. After determining where this magical salad was, she said, "That's never happened to me. I mean, I've had that salad and ... nothing unusual."

It was a night of revelations for Fiona on 'Web Therapy' (Tue., 11PM ET on Showtime). Were she not such a narcissist, you might actually be concerned for the emotional turmoil she must have been going through.

First, she finds out that has has an older half-Vietnamese brother, and that her mother intends to shower him with the money Fiona's been wanting to build up her web therapy "modality." Then, one of her patients reveals in no uncertain terms that she'll be sleeping with Fiona's husband.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg, as she spoke again with the patient, Robin, who said that Fiona's husband had no interest in her after all. "He said that he only hit on me to begin with because he thought I was a transvestite!" she sobbed.

Fiona continued to forge ahead on making her new modality of 'Web Therapy' (Tue., 11PM ET on Showtime) a success by having some of her clients and friends film testimonials on her behalf. But things didn't go so well when she had Gina on to do hers.

The problem was that Fiona's tech assistant Kamal was on her side, causing a distraction. The two started up a pretty intense flirting session after Kamal found out Gina broke up with her boyfriend for not having enough sex with her.

Also, as a stereotypical blonde bimbo, Gina ends every sentence with a question mark, and gets distracted almost constantly. Still her testimonial proved better than the lengthy one with a client who spent more time thanking his girlfriend than talking about Fiona, then fought with her and then got aroused.

The idea behind 'Web Therapy' is completely ludicrous, which is exactly why Lisa Kudrow developed it. She explained on 'Chelsea Lately' (Weeknights, 11PM ET on E!) the train of thought that lead to the original web series.

"People do just about everything on the Internet that's intimate and maybe very personal, and maybe they shouldn't," she said. "So I just thought the dumbest thing in the world would be to do therapy on the Internet."

Lisa Kudrow has taken the leap from the Internet to television with 'Web Therapy' (Tue., 11PM ET on Showtime). The series has run for three seasons online and was recently re-purposed by Showtime, with additional scenes being filmed, for a ten-episode first season.

It's certainly a unique presentation, with everything being seen from the vantage points of web cameras pointed at Fiona (Kudrow) and her various friends and patients as she tries to establish a new therapy modality of three-minute sessions over the web.

After a disastrous test session with Ted, a psychologist and representative from her former employers and potential investors, fortune dropped in Fiona's lap thanks to an unexpected chat with her friend, who is also the receptionist where she used to work.

Remini thought the cast was great, and they apparently enjoyed her, too. "Usually when you're stars like that at a top ten show, immediately number one, you know, you figure, they're all going to be jerks," said Remini. "They were the nicest cast. Like, every guest star that came on the show, they were like, come sit with us. They were the sweetest, most generous cast."

Kudrow insisted she would never do such a thing because she's "a decent person." So Ferguson upped the ante. Now, would she do it if no one would ever know about it and it was specifically someone that she absolutely hates?

For Kudrow, though, it was more than just morality. "I'm afraid of hunting," she explained. "It's people with guns. Anything can happen." She used Dick Cheney's hunting accident as an example.

As a therapist, you'd think Fiona Wallice would be better at picking up signals. But that wasn't the case on 'Web Therapy' (Tuesdays, 11PM on Showtime), as Wallice (Lisa Kudrow) mistook her IT guy's small nicety for flirting, which led to an awkward conversation.

Wallice told Kamal Prakash (Maulik Pancholy) that he looked handsome, and he replied that she looked "nice as well." Wallice said, "I think that's about enough of that. All right?" and made it clear she was married. Prakash then made it clear he worked for her husband, so he knew that already. "Yes," said Wallice. "Right. So. We'll just keep this between us."

Adapting a Web series for TV comes with its own unique set of advantages and drawbacks. Lisa Kudrow is familiar with the process, having just moved her 'Web Therapy' show from the Internet to Showtime, adapting it from short segments to a 30-minute weekly format. It was surprisingly easy, she said Wednesday on 'Access Hollywood Live' (weekdays, syndicated on NBC).

"We always had some kind of narrative going that, I think when you just watch one Webisode online, you miss that," said Kudrow. "And that's fine, because they were built to stand alone. But when you can put them together in a half-hour form, you can see the narrative more, and it actually works as a half-hour TV show. We were so thrilled."

Lisa Kudrow's new comedy 'Web Therapy' debuts this week on Showtime, and if the title didn't tip you off, the show is a 30-minute reworking of a web series Kudrow started in 2008. The simple premise worked beautifully in the miniature format.

Kudrow plays Fiona Wallice, a therapist who thinks 50 minutes is too long for a therapy session, and conducts her mini-sessions via webcam. Of course, like most of Kudrow's characters, Wallice is self-centred, mean, and not all that well-informed. (I don't know why Kudrow insists on creating such unlikeable alter-egos for herself, but that's another column.) The trick will be to see if whatever charm the original held is maintained in a 30-minute format.

I'm going to be totally honest here -- I had never heard of 'Web Therapy' until it got picked up for television. Am I completely out of touch? Was the whole world watching this and nobody mentioned it to me? Or are you just as surprised as I am to hear that Kudrow has been regularly employed -- and winning Webby Awards -- for the last four years?

Lisa Kudrow isn't an idiot, but she used to play one on TV. She spoke Friday on 'Live With Regis and Kelly' (weekdays, syndicated) about returning to her alma matter Vassar College to give the school's commencement address last year, despite the fact that her most well-known character, Phoebe from 'Friends,' may not be the best embodiment of a Vassar education.

"I apologized to all the parents in the audience that you have this person who played who played an idiot on a sitcom sending your children into their future," said Kudrow. Kelly Ripa pointed out that it takes a smart person to play an idiot convincingly, and Kudrow agreed.

We know Huddy fans don't want to think about it, but who could ever replace her? It's possible they could promote from within, but they probably don't want to ruin the team dynamic either. And if they bumped Wilson up to bossman status, that would certainly complicate his friendship with House even more.

So we've come up with a list of strong contenders ... all women, as it turns out, so I guess we like that sexual tension, too. I mean, someone's gonna have to be the soft feminine shoulder for House to cry on when his favorite sparring partner says goodbye, right?

Showtime has reportedly picked up Kudrow's online series 'Web Therapy,' in which she plays Fiona Wallice, a therapist who gives her patients advice via a Webcam. The dark comedy revolves around the very self-interested Fiona, who thinks three minutes of Web therapy is better than 50 minutes of in-person therapy, since, to her way of thinking, regular sessions mostly consist of patients going off on irrelevant tangents.

Fiona hopes her online sessions can spark a worldwide revolution in how people seek psychiatric care, and her motives to build her brand are usually evident in her interactions with her patients.